The Secret Machines @ Irving Plaza: Three Is A Magic Number

Last night was The Secret Machines' opening night of their US tour in support of this year's thrilling, Ten Silver Drops. Josh, Ben and Brandon collectively decided to have this tour in-the-round.


While I was under the assumption that each band member would be in an opposite side of the room, the show actually featured a circular stage directly in the center of Irving Plaza (just like the Hiro Ballroom show earlier this year). The stage dymanic was intense, just like the music the band produces.


I was rather surprised to hear 2 pre-Now Here Is Nowhere tracks in the set, particularly one opening the show. That said, they sounded great and fresh in spite of their age. The band see-sawed for most of their set with songs from NHIN and TSD with a cover of 'Money' thrown in for good measure.


'The Road Leads Where It'd Led' was breathtaking and powerful. 'All At Once', which isn't necessarily one of my favorites on TSD, sounded glorious and was one of the most well-received tracks of the night.


The band hopped off stage briefly after 'Now Here Is Nowhere', only to return with a 4-song blustering encore that closed with a glowing version of 'First Wave Intact'. 120 minutes of sheer bliss!


I'm Just Sayin' has live versions of 'The Road Leads Where It's Led' and 'Alone Jealous & Stoned' for download!

And because I love you, here's the setlist:


Once again, the band plays Irving Plaza again tonight and Warsaw in Brooklyn in a month. That show will end the US tour; the boys head to Europe immediately afterwards!